Tuesday - 1st February
- This week we are planning and deciding on what issue we want to research for our project. The areas that I am leaning towards are either photography, technology, or sleeping patterns as they are things that interest me. Using the Google Wonderwheel, I have found a potential issue that I can research which is sleeping disorders and insomnia.
RPR.png
Thursday - 4th February
- In our next lesson, we headed off to the library and were given a range of books with issues that we could look at. From these, we could pick possible topics that we were interested in. I have decided to research on sleeping disorders because I have a strong interest in the topic and believe it is a common issue that needs to be addressed for the benefit of others.
- Once I picked my topic, I needed to decide on a area/question that my research would be focussing on mainly. I decided that I would research to try and discover, "The relationship between lengths of sleep and the ability to learn and retain information".
Week 2
Monday - 7th February
-After I picked my topic question/statment, I started to research background information online so that I could get an idea of what information I need to find. Using ebscohost I found some useful articles related to my topic :
Thursday - 10th February
- This week was basically just used to find out background information about our topics that we have chosen to help us decide on a thesis that will be the main focus for our research throughout the semester.
Week 3
Monday - 14th February
- This week Ms. McInnes ran through the principles of the CRAP test and showed us several websites which assisted in explaining these principles.
CRAP stands for Credibility, Reliability, Authority and Purpose, this test helps students in evaluating the sources that we use and to see if we should trust their information that they are providing. When we use the CRAP test, we go through each section and ask the following types of questions to help us in evaluating a website. Currency
How recent is the information that you are using?
How recently has the website been updated since being published?
Is the information current enough for your research topic?
Reliability
What types of information is included in the website?
Is content of the website bias? Is is balanced?
Does the author of the website provide references or sources for data or quotations?
Authority
Who is the creator or author?
What are the credentials of the author?
Who is the published or sponsor of the website?
Are there advertisements on the website? (This can be an indication of the website trying to sell you a product)
Purpose/Point of View
Is the information on the website fact or opinion?
Is it biased in anyway e.g adding an opinion to a subject to make it more favourable?
Is the creator/author trying to sell you something through their content?
- We were also introduced to the 5W's which are Who, What, Why, When, and Where. This technique is used to get a broad range of information on your topic and allows you to expand to other areas which can gather you deeper information for your research.
An example of using the 5W's could be: Who needs sleep? What makes a person fall asleep? Why do we need sleep? When should we be sleeping? and Where is the best environment to be sleeping in?
Tuesday - 15th February - This week we are required to write up our research project proposals which aims to explain all our intentions, aims and processes that will go through during our Research Project.
Thursday - 17th February
- After finishing my proposal, I gave it to Ms. McInnes to check for me. She have me some positive feedback and advice on how to fix up my proposal so that it flowed and was correct.
-Once my proposal was editted by Ms. McInnes, I began writing my final copy of my proposal, ready to be handed up on Monday.
Tuesday - 22nd February
- This week Ms McInnes introduced us to the 5 Why's which is a concept where you begin with a broad question and then answer. From there your answer becomes your new question and you continue in this manner. By doing this we gain a deeper knowledge of why our topic is an issue and have more things to investigate
My 5 Whys can be seen below:
Why is sleep important for students?
Because without sleep, students would not be able to stay awake in class and stay focussed Why can't students stay awake in class if they don't sleep?
They can't stay stay awake because sleep is needed to repair your body, reduce stress, and other beneficial health aspects Why do we need to keep our body healthy and stress free?
By keeping our bodies healthy we are able to work at our optimum physically, mentally and socially Why can we keep our bodies so healthy with sleep?
It has been clinically proven that during sleep our bodies produce extra protein molecules that help strengthen our ability to fight infection and stay healthy How do these proteins keep us healthy?
These protein molecules help our immune system mend our bodies at a cellular level when we are stressed or have been exposed to compromising elements such as pollutants and infectious bacteria.
Friday - 25th February
- I began to make a concept map to assist me in structuring what I need to research and which areas I need to investigate
Concept_Map.png
Week 5
Monday - 28th February
Today Ms Woud introduced us to the newly edited wikispace homepage and showed us how to create a survey on Zoomerang. I found this useful because I have never made a survey online before and was shown how easy and effective they were.
Tuesday - 1st March Today I constructed my own survey on Zoomerang about sleeping. I will be using this to get a basic image of the situation people in my community are in and the types of sleeping styles average people have.
Thursday - 3rd March Today I began to research possible primary sources that I could interview to gain specialist information. The sources that I could possibly interview are: - Adelaide Insomnia Clinic - Adelaide Sleep Clinic - Western Sleep - Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health (AISH) - Sleep4Health - Burnside War Memorial Hospital Sleep Centre
Week 6
Monday - 7th March
Sleep4Health.PNG
Today I began emailing several sleep clinics and hospitals in hopes of gaining possible interviews with specialists so that I could gain primary source information for my research.
Within a few hours I was successfully able to achieve an acceptance for an interview from a doctor at Sleep4Health in Dulwich. I have arranged to have an interview with this doctor next month once I have organised my interview questions.
Tuesday - 8th March Today I demonstrated to the class how to embed a zoomerang survey on to the wiki. This allows students to be able to do surveys directly on the student's wiki page rather than going to a website link. I am also beginning to construct my interview questions as I have already successfully found some interviewees, who I will be meeting in the next few weeks.
Thursday - 10th March Today we watched a SSABSA video that explained the assessment criteria and processes of the research project. This was useful to me as it cleared up a few things that I was unsure of about the assessment.
Friday - 11th March During this lesson, I begun to prepare for my 10 minute discussion that I will be having next week with Ms McInnes. This is a recorded discussion in which Ms McInnes will question me about my research project, so that she can see all the processes and plans that I have for my project and also to see if I am on the right track.
Week 7
Tuesday - 15th MarchDuring this lesson I talked to Ms McInnes about organising a time for my discussion and I should be having my 10 minute discussion on Friday. Today I will continue to research about my topic so I can finalise my interview questions and make sure that I am not asking specialists about information I can find already on the internet.I will need to contact more clinics and specialists to interview as I have only received one confirmation of a possible interview.Friday - 18th MarchToday I conducted my 10 minute discussion with Ms McInnes. It was a good discussion which allowed me to discuss my research project with her indepth. We were able to throughly assess the aspects of my project and she suggested possible improvements to fine tune my project
Week 8
Tuesday - 22nd March
AISH.PNG
I have received an email from the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health (AISH) to confirm the chance for an interview with them. I am now in the process of arranging a time with them and they have also generously offered to show me around their sleep laboratory in addition to holding an interview.
I have also produced a new survey under the suggestion of Ms McInnes in order to find the relationship between the amounts of sleep students have and their average grades. Please take your time to help me out by doing my new survey. If you would like to link any other students to my survey use: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C476VF9TD/
Thursday- 22nd March Today I am working on my 5 focus questions and organising how I will be presenting my information and research outcome. I have decided that I will produce a factsheet to present my findings at the end of my research project along with the research outcome and the evaluation required for assessment.
Week 9
Tuesday - 29th March
- Today we receieved an approved permission form to give to all our surveyers and interviewees so that we have their formal consent to be using their information.
- I also continued researching about my topic and gathered some great in-depth information from a few sources online. I will be able to use this information to help me in organising the information that I need for my research outcome.
Thursday - 31st March
- I have not recieved replies back from the two primary sources that I have organised an interview with so while I am waiting, I have emailed the Child and Adolescent Sleep Clinic at Flinders University to organise an interview with the Clinical Director there.
Friday - 1st April - Recently I have been having trouble with my topic as I discovered that another student in the school is doing a very similiar topic as mine. Due to this I was considering of altering my focus so that it differed from the other students focus. Fortunately enough I found out today that the student is planning on changing their whole topic which means that I can keep the same topic that I am doing and not fall into any plagiarism concerns from SACE. - I also need to finalise my interview questions before I attempt any interviews from specialists. I need Ms McInnes to check and approve my questions when she has time but currently she is involved with the discussions of other students. - Here is an update of my first survey results
I am still getting more respondants to my survey and my second survey "Sleep Vs Grades" is currently getting advertised online to get surveyers.
Week 10
Monday - 4th April
Today I emailed the Clinical Director of the Child and Adolescent Clinic at Flinders University some interview questions as he is too busy to conduct a physical interview.
Interview Questions for Flinders University 1. What is the main cause of sleeping problems found with your patients? 2. Do you find that the problems are easily fixed or do they take a long process? 3. Do you believe that sleep is a major factor in our ability to learn and memoriseinformation? 4. Is the effect of sleep on the human body completely understood or is there research still being made? 5. Do you think that too much sleep is bad for us? Does it have any effects? 6. Do you have a recommended amount of sleep for teenagers? 7. Are there any basic methods that people can use to assist them in better sleep? 8. Do you believe that the adolescents of Australia are losing more sleep through each generation? 9. Are sleeping disorders more common in adolescents or adults? 10. Do recommend using sleeping pills or prescription medication to assist in sleep? 11. Are there any side-effects from using natural or medical remedies?
Tuesday - 5th April Today I received an email back from the Clinical Director and he provided me with some great articles which are related to my research topic. He was not able to answer the questions today but he said that he will send the answers back during the week.
Week 11
Monday - 11th April This week I will be spending all my time preparing my research outcome. It will explain all the results and research that I have achieved throughout the project.
Week 12
Monday - 2nd May Today I found a good recent article about the effects of sleeping on memory. It explains very indepth about the processes of sleep and demonstratates the connection between sleep and memory. I will definitely be able to use this article for my outcome.
Files
Please assist me and do my NEW survey. Thank you : http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C476VF9TD/
Week 1
Tuesday - 1st February- This week we are planning and deciding on what issue we want to research for our project. The areas that I am leaning towards are either photography, technology, or sleeping patterns as they are things that interest me. Using the Google Wonderwheel, I have found a potential issue that I can research which is sleeping disorders and insomnia.
Thursday - 4th February
- In our next lesson, we headed off to the library and were given a range of books with issues that we could look at. From these, we could pick possible topics that we were interested in. I have decided to research on sleeping disorders because I have a strong interest in the topic and believe it is a common issue that needs to be addressed for the benefit of others.
- Once I picked my topic, I needed to decide on a area/question that my research would be focussing on mainly. I decided that I would research to try and discover, "The relationship between lengths of sleep and the ability to learn and retain information".
Week 2
Monday - 7th February
-After I picked my topic question/statment, I started to research background information online so that I could get an idea of what information I need to find. Using ebscohost I found some useful articles related to my topic :
Poor sleep fallout Depression, stress linked to sleeping disorders
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=104&sid=39573e94-09b4-47e1-a123-02ec4cc93f11%40sessionmgr113&vid=7&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=anh&AN=201010231067856547
I chose this article because I found that it discussed the research of a WA doctor who suggests that " the way poor quality sleep could have a major, but often overlooked, impact on mental health. " This is useful to me, because it is exactly that area that I am hoping to research about for my topic and gave me an insight that there was studies being conducted currently on this issue.
Sleeping Sickness
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=104&sid=39573e94-09b4-47e1-a123-02ec4cc93f11%40sessionmgr113&vid=4&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=anh&AN=33741880
This article was particularly useful to me, as it reports about one third of the population of New Zealand having some type of sleeping problem. This was a surprise to me because I did not think that sleeping problems were that big and common in the world. This is beneficial to me as I am able to research about a topic which will aim to help out many people who need an answer to their sleeping problems.
Why do I have... trouble sleeping?
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=104&sid=6da45d7c-11a7-495a-b820-db82ee3739cc%40sessionmgr113&vid=2&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=anh&AN=54377371
I found that this document was useful to me because it provided information on sleeping problems in a well structured manner. It went through sections of Signs, Causes, Prevention and Treatment. This is great information as it assists me in beginning to form my background knowledge on the issue and see what current solutions there are to the problem.
Tuesday - 8th February
Sleep Apnoea
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=104&sid=39573e94-09b4-47e1-a123-02ec4cc93f11%40sessionmgr113&vid=3&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=anh&AN=53576873
This document is an excellent source of information for me, as it discusses several adult respiratory sleep disorders and their symptoms which affect sleeping and breathing. It provided me with so much information such as types of disorders, symptoms, severity grading, and more. This 7 page document will give me a great amount of information when I begin to construct my project together and sort out what I need to find.
The Secrets of Sleep
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?hid=21&sid=c6179a48-9ad7-42ac-a8ec-2e0941508702%40sessionmgr13&vid=1&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=anh&AN=13043132
I chose this article because it focusses directly on the issue that I want to research, the relationship between sleeping and learning. It talks about sleep research and the learning potential of sleep. They are finding that getting more sleep helps students do better in school. This is due to the brain sleeping, is a step in memorising important information and removing the irrelevant information.
Thursday - 10th February
- This week was basically just used to find out background information about our topics that we have chosen to help us decide on a thesis that will be the main focus for our research throughout the semester.
Week 3
Monday - 14th February- This week Ms. McInnes ran through the principles of the CRAP test and showed us several websites which assisted in explaining these principles.
CRAP stands for Credibility, Reliability, Authority and Purpose, this test helps students in evaluating the sources that we use and to see if we should trust their information that they are providing.
When we use the CRAP test, we go through each section and ask the following types of questions to help us in evaluating a website.
Currency
Reliability
- What types of information is included in the website?
- Is content of the website bias? Is is balanced?
- Does the author of the website provide references or sources for data or quotations?
Authority- Who is the creator or author?
- What are the credentials of the author?
- Who is the published or sponsor of the website?
- Are there advertisements on the website? (This can be an indication of the website trying to sell you a product)
Purpose/Point of View- We were also introduced to the 5W's which are Who, What, Why, When, and Where. This technique is used to get a broad range of information on your topic and allows you to expand to other areas which can gather you deeper information for your research.
An example of using the 5W's could be:
Who needs sleep? What makes a person fall asleep? Why do we need sleep? When should we be sleeping? and Where is the best environment to be sleeping in?
Tuesday - 15th February
- This week we are required to write up our research project proposals which aims to explain all our intentions, aims and processes that will go through during our Research Project.
Thursday - 17th February
- After finishing my proposal, I gave it to Ms. McInnes to check for me. She have me some positive feedback and advice on how to fix up my proposal so that it flowed and was correct.
-Once my proposal was editted by Ms. McInnes, I began writing my final copy of my proposal, ready to be handed up on Monday.
Week 4
Tuesday - 22nd February- This week Ms McInnes introduced us to the 5 Why's which is a concept where you begin with a broad question and then answer. From there your answer becomes your new question and you continue in this manner. By doing this we gain a deeper knowledge of why our topic is an issue and have more things to investigate
My 5 Whys can be seen below:
Why is sleep important for students?
Because without sleep, students would not be able to stay awake in class and stay focussed
Why can't students stay awake in class if they don't sleep?
They can't stay stay awake because sleep is needed to repair your body, reduce stress, and other beneficial health aspects
Why do we need to keep our body healthy and stress free?
By keeping our bodies healthy we are able to work at our optimum physically, mentally and socially
Why can we keep our bodies so healthy with sleep?
It has been clinically proven that during sleep our bodies produce extra protein molecules that help strengthen our ability to fight infection and stay healthy
How do these proteins keep us healthy?
These protein molecules help our immune system mend our bodies at a cellular level when we are stressed or have been exposed to compromising elements such as pollutants and infectious bacteria.
Friday - 25th February
- I began to make a concept map to assist me in structuring what I need to research and which areas I need to investigate
Week 5
Monday - 28th FebruaryToday Ms Woud introduced us to the newly edited wikispace homepage and showed us how to create a survey on Zoomerang. I found this useful because I have never made a survey online before and was shown how easy and effective they were.
Tuesday - 1st March
Today I constructed my own survey on Zoomerang about sleeping. I will be using this to get a basic image of the situation people in my community are in and the types of sleeping styles average people have.
If you want to link people to my survey you can go to here: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22BYFQ76BTD/
Thursday - 3rd March
Today I began to research possible primary sources that I could interview to gain specialist information.
The sources that I could possibly interview are:
- Adelaide Insomnia Clinic
- Adelaide Sleep Clinic
- Western Sleep
- Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health (AISH)
- Sleep4Health
- Burnside War Memorial Hospital Sleep Centre
Week 6
Monday - 7th MarchWithin a few hours I was successfully able to achieve an acceptance for an interview from a doctor at Sleep4Health in Dulwich. I have arranged to have an interview with this doctor next month once I have organised my interview questions.
Tuesday - 8th March
Today I demonstrated to the class how to embed a zoomerang survey on to the wiki. This allows students to be able to do surveys directly on the student's wiki page rather than going to a website link. I am also beginning to construct my interview questions as I have already successfully found some interviewees, who I will be meeting in the next few weeks.
Thursday - 10th March
Today we watched a SSABSA video that explained the assessment criteria and processes of the research project. This was useful to me as it cleared up a few things that I was unsure of about the assessment.
Friday - 11th March
During this lesson, I begun to prepare for my 10 minute discussion that I will be having next week with Ms McInnes. This is a recorded discussion in which Ms McInnes will question me about my research project, so that she can see all the processes and plans that I have for my project and also to see if I am on the right track.
Week 7
Tuesday - 15th MarchDuring this lesson I talked to Ms McInnes about organising a time for my discussion and I should be having my 10 minute discussion on Friday. Today I will continue to research about my topic so I can finalise my interview questions and make sure that I am not asking specialists about information I can find already on the internet.I will need to contact more clinics and specialists to interview as I have only received one confirmation of a possible interview.Friday - 18th MarchToday I conducted my 10 minute discussion with Ms McInnes. It was a good discussion which allowed me to discuss my research project with her indepth. We were able to throughly assess the aspects of my project and she suggested possible improvements to fine tune my projectWeek 8
Tuesday - 22nd MarchI have received an email from the Adelaide Institute for Sleep Health (AISH) to confirm the chance for an interview with them. I am now in the process of arranging a time with them and they have also generously offered to show me around their sleep laboratory in addition to holding an interview.
I have also produced a new survey under the suggestion of Ms McInnes in order to find the relationship between the amounts of sleep students have and their average grades. Please take your time to help me out by doing my new survey. If you would like to link any other students to my survey use: http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/WEB22C476VF9TD/
Thursday - 22nd March
Today I am working on my 5 focus questions and organising how I will be presenting my information and research outcome. I have decided that I will produce a factsheet to present my findings at the end of my research project along with the research outcome and the evaluation required for assessment.
Week 9
Tuesday - 29th March- Today we receieved an approved permission form to give to all our surveyers and interviewees so that we have their formal consent to be using their information.
- I also continued researching about my topic and gathered some great in-depth information from a few sources online. I will be able to use this information to help me in organising the information that I need for my research outcome.
Thursday - 31st March
- I have not recieved replies back from the two primary sources that I have organised an interview with so while I am waiting, I have emailed the Child and Adolescent Sleep Clinic at Flinders University to organise an interview with the Clinical Director there.
Friday - 1st April
- Recently I have been having trouble with my topic as I discovered that another student in the school is doing a very similiar topic as mine. Due to this I was considering of altering my focus so that it differed from the other students focus. Fortunately enough I found out today that the student is planning on changing their whole topic which means that I can keep the same topic that I am doing and not fall into any plagiarism concerns from SACE.
- I also need to finalise my interview questions before I attempt any interviews from specialists. I need Ms McInnes to check and approve my questions when she has time but currently she is involved with the discussions of other students.
- Here is an update of my first survey results
I am still getting more respondants to my survey and my second survey "Sleep Vs Grades" is currently getting advertised online to get surveyers.
Week 10
Monday - 4th AprilToday I emailed the Clinical Director of the Child and Adolescent Clinic at Flinders University some interview questions as he is too busy to conduct a physical interview.
Interview Questions for Flinders University
1. What is the main cause of sleeping problems found with your patients?
2. Do you find that the problems are easily fixed or do they take a long process?
3. Do you believe that sleep is a major factor in our ability to learn and memoriseinformation?
4. Is the effect of sleep on the human body completely understood or is there research still being made?
5. Do you think that too much sleep is bad for us? Does it have any effects?
6. Do you have a recommended amount of sleep for teenagers?
7. Are there any basic methods that people can use to assist them in better sleep?
8. Do you believe that the adolescents of Australia are losing more sleep through each generation?
9. Are sleeping disorders more common in adolescents or adults?
10. Do recommend using sleeping pills or prescription medication to assist in sleep?
11. Are there any side-effects from using natural or medical remedies?
Tuesday - 5th April
Today I received an email back from the Clinical Director and he provided me with some great articles which are related to my research topic. He was not able to answer the questions today but he said that he will send the answers back during the week.
Week 11
Monday - 11th AprilThis week I will be spending all my time preparing my research outcome. It will explain all the results and research that I have achieved throughout the project.
Week 12
Monday - 2nd MayToday I found a good recent article about the effects of sleeping on memory. It explains very indepth about the processes of sleep and demonstratates the connection between sleep and memory. I will definitely be able to use this article for my outcome.
http://172.27.143.10/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=53&Itemid=89
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=3&hid=21&sid=b21574c3-8f47-4a71-a2d9-4f85ddbc8af4%40sessionmgr14&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d
Stickgold, R 2005, 'Sleep-dependent memory consolidation', Nature, 437, 7063, pp. 1272-1278, Australia/New Zealand Reference Centre, EBSCOhost, viewed 1 May 2011.
Week 13
Thursday - 12th MayThis week I am just continuing my research outcome and my folio in preparation for getting it draft checked by Ms McInnes
Week 14
Week 15